2. The Physics of Skydiving By: Christian Aponte Boris Shluger

3. What is Skydiving? The practice of jumping out of an aircraft from several thousand feet above sea level and then free falling before releasing a parachute, which allows the skydiver to reduce his speed so he can land gently on the surface of the earth.

4. What concepts of physics are involved with Skydiving? Acceleration Air Resistance Surface Area Terminal Velocity Aerodynamics Newton's Laws

5. Acceleration Acceleration (the rate of change of velocity) is caused by a net force on an object. On Earth, one force we can always count on is the ever present force of gravity pulling down on any object that has mass. If gravity is the only force acting on an object, then we find the object will accelerate at a rate of 9.8m/s 2 down toward the center of the Earth. Gravity acts on all bodies in the universe, and each bodies' gravitational effects are related. The body that the majority of the human population is affected by is the planet earth.

6. What is Air Resistance?

7. What is air resistance? Basically, it is friction between an object and the air. When a mass is moving at high speeds, air resistance causes them to slow their velocity by their position. If they were in a diving position ' V ', there is less air resistance, because there is less surface area facing the direction you are going in. If you were to spread all of your limbs out, it causes a much greater surface area, causing more air to collide with your stomach, slowing you down. What causes air resistance? All matter is made from atoms and/or molecules. The air is no exception. When something moves through the air, it bumps into the atoms and molecules.

8. Air resistance depends on your surface area. For example, if you are falling in a ball you will fall fast, if you are falling flat out completely stretched out, you will fall slower. Using a parachute just creates more surface area (hence you can land without dying). When you dive (falling completely straight) you have less surface area and your velocity is be higher. Surface Area

9. How are Acceleration and Air Resistance connected? Acceleration of a skydiver is connected with air resistance by the fact that when a skydiver's speed becomes so great and the force of air resistance becomes so great that they both equal each other. With this happening a skydiver does not accelerate anymore, and reaches what is known as terminal velocity.

10. Terminal Velocity. Terminal velocity is the maximum velocity that an object can reach when falling through the air. Without air resistance, a body would continue to accelerate towards infinity. Terminal velocity varies between different kinds of bodies. A feather, released from a very tall building, will fall much slower and reach a terminal velocity much sooner than that of a rock. Gravity is acting equally on both of these objects, but because of the greater surface area to mass ratio of the feather, the feather reaches its terminal velocity much sooner.

11. Unbelievable Demonstration

13. How do my laws play into skydiving? Newton'sFir stLaw Newton'sSec ondLaw Newton's ThirdLaw

14. Newton's First Law This law states "A body persists its state of rest or of uniform motion unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force." In skydiving, this law is demonstrated easily when the diver pulls the parachute. Once the parachute is pulled, the diver's velocity, which at terminal velocity, is traveling at a constant speed but then immediately changes. The outside force of air resistance changes the divers velocity. Then when a diver lands the force of the ground changes the velocity of the skydiver and completely stops him. Back

15. Newton's Second Law Back Newton's second law states that "Force equals mass times acceleration (F = ma)": the net force on an object is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by its acceleration A skydiver needs this equation to figure out when he's gonna hit the ground and when to pull the parachute. The skydiver can find out their acceleration by inputting the force of gravity in along with their mass.

16. Back This law sates that "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." This is just a basic when it comes to understanding the way motion works. It relates to skydiving in the fact that all of the gravity and other forces a skydiver experiences while jumping are being counteracted by and equal and opposite force. Newton's Third Law

17. Works Cited

18. The End